A poisonous fear makes my next words sound pleading. “If you saved me, then you must have saved Jatin too.”
He laughs. “Ah, so you do care for my nephew. Interesting.”
I raise my head. Our eyes meet. For what feels like a century we stare each other down. Every piece of information he absorbs is a stab to the gut. I don’t want this murderer to learn one single thing, especially when it comes to Jatin. But it’s too late. Moolek knows his next words could unravel me.
He turns and steps toward the window, walking past me like I’m nothing. “Lucky for you I needed you both alive.”
I take a trembling breath. Relief stings my eyes. Jatin. Is. Alive. “Why? Why save us?”
“I’m sure you’ll figure it out soon enough.” Moolek’s fingers brush the curtains. Everything stills, deathlike. “This is a beautiful view you have here.”
The ache shooting through my body tells me even standing would be a hardship, but I have to know. I want to hear him say it. Quiet has engulfed the room, making my words loud. “You should have seen it before you destroyed it,” I say.
“You think it was me?”
I rise to my knees and slowly, trembling, stand up. “I know it was.” Moolek turns, watching me with little interest. “Erif told me,” I lie.
I want to see him bleed. I want to see fear in his eyes.Anything!
At the goddess’s name, he only raises an eyebrow. “Ah yes, I forgot. You had your first death. Youtalkedto the gods. Once you’ve had your fifth I’ll be impressed.” He scoffs. “You still think the gods try to protect us. You do not yet know how the world works. None of you down south do. That’s why you are all so weak.”
Father’s words echo in my memory.Look to Moolek to see what happens without our powers checked. Soon one starts to think they are God-like.God-like enough to take more than a hundred lives without a second thought. My agony boils over.
“Agnierif!”I yell, and a bolt of red smoke shoots from my hand and rages toward him, blazing into fire.
With a flick of his hand, a wall materializes. Then the shield bursts into green smoke and swallows my fire.
I jump to the side and twist, building a piercing arrow. I throw. But Moolek isn’t where I thought he’d be. Out of the corner of my eye, I see green flaring to my left. As the spear pierces the curtain, his spell hits me in the ribs. I crumble. Pain consumes me, mimicking the burn of my arm throughout my body.
“Like I said. Weak.”
Right now, I am weak. I feel it. Burned. Bandaged.Broken!my arm yells at me. The anger doesn’t care, though. It wants to keep screaming. “We are strong enough to stand against you,” I say, my voice a wheeze of pain and hurt. I raise my hand and begin another spell, but a cuff of purple magic flies in the air and hits my wrist, pinning it to the ground.
Moolek steps forward. “No, you aren’t. You think Erif is on your side, that she grants you some destiny that will stop me? Who do you think granted me the power to activate that volcano?” He pulls up his sleeve and a dense green smoke soars into the air. “And you think it matters thatyouknow it was me?” He laughs. “You failed your royal ceremony, Adraa Belwar. Look at yourself. Hire all the Red Women you want. You are nothing of consequence anymore.”
Finally, the words have been spoken, the answer clear. The God of Earth helped him as the Goddess of Fire helped me. He infused the volcano with my magic and then with an extreme amount of green magic he pressurized Mount Gandhak to make it erupt. I stagger under the weight of it all. Especially the words that ring truest: I did fail. I failed the royal ceremony. I failed in saving one hundred twenty-nine people. But how amIstill alive? He saved me. Why…
Something glues together in my mind. That guard said I had killed my people, that I was the threat. Lies, of course. But still, lies that he believed.
Lucky for you I needed you both alive.
It’s all manipulation, planned from the beginning. Moolek wants me afraid, not dead, because he needs me. My firelight.My firelight!
I break the cuff and rise. He thinks I hired the Red Woman. He thinks I am nothing but a royal who—like him—believes I have a right to rule. Erif made one thing quite clear: there is only choice, not destiny. I choose not to cower. He will pay for every life he took, even if that kills me. “So it’s my word against yours. But you forget the truth accords. My people will know what you have done.”
“I forget nothing, girl. Nothing,” he whispers. Yet, I can tell he holds back a shout. I’ve unnerved him. I’m still standing.
Without a second thought I rip the bandages from my arm, push back the pain, and let magic flare in a bloodred storm. I ignore my burns, and my feet find their stability.
Finally, surprise enters his eyes.
“I won’t forget either. Remember that,” I say.
A wash of green smoke sparks into the air. I brace myself. I took down a volcano. I can defend myself for a few minutes. A few minutes.
Footsteps smack the stone in the hall. We both still. I listen, trying to pick out whether they are my father’s hard footfalls and my mother’s quick steps or those of Moolek’s men.
“That’s my cue. I’ll see you soon.” Instead of firing at me, his magic churns around him like a vine.
